Friday Kickaround

*The crowd (35,807 on a Thursday?) was sensational. The backdrop (downtown Seattle) was breathtaking. ESPN's presentation gave the feel of a big-time event. The kit colors (emerald green, Dutch orange) were worthy of "Project Runway." The intensity and pace were top-notch. A shot cleared off the line and another off the crossbar. Too bad there weren't any goals. The MLS playoffs began in fiery style last night with a 0-0 tie between Seattle and Houston at Qwest Field. Advantage: Dynamo.

*College soccer Saturday night: Eighth-ranked Maryland faces No. 12 Virginia at Ludwig Field in College Park. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. The Terps, playing their final ACC match, are 10-4-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the league. Standout forward Casey Townsend (ankle injury) is expected to return after missing eight matches, but Maryland has other concerns. The Cavs, who are 10-3-1 and 3-3, have won three straight. On Sunday at 1 p.m., the eighth-ranked Maryland women (12-3-2) will host No. 4 North Carolina (13-3-1) and attempt to defeat the Tar Heels for the first time after 27 losses and one draw. The Terps have been outscored in the series 108-5.

In the comments during the game last night I said that he was very lucky not to see red. Really dumb move, not Wicks dumb, but certainly not something you expect from the oldest player on the pitch. My impression is that none of the officials really saw it and basically handed out offsetting yellows just because they had to do something and Onstad and Montero were at the heart of whatever it was.

I thought they were kind of cool, but that someday we'd look back in horror. Some kits and colors last, others age quickly.

I didn't think I'd be sick of them before the end of the their first campaign, but I am. They look awful to me now.

Posted by: JkR- | October 30, 2009 9:58 AM

I instantly knew they were atrocious. Keep your club/home colors conservative and get wacky with an away shirt every now and then. Reminds me of tons of teams going with lame copper (*cough cough Caps cough cough*), teal or purple colors in the 90s and now they have to change.

Lucky to not get red because Houston is going to need him for the home leg. For once this season, it doesn't look like freddy dove, he was legitimately chest bumped to the ground. In my slow-mo, after-the-fact analysis; Onstad should have been ejected but I am glad he didn't, it would have changed the whole dynamic of the series.

I respectfully disagree. If every team in MLS was conservative, we'd have even more teams in red, blue, or white (current count: 9, and soon to be 10 with Philly coming in). I'm not saying Seattle's jerseys are great looking, but I'm glad they're not another boring, cookie-cutter team.

I suppose MLS will be fining me now.

***

Onstad deserved a yellow, and should know better. The talk of him deserving a red is preposterous. It's a chest bump. It's not a strike to a soft area (the current refereeing term for the neck/face), it's not using an elbow, fist, forearm, knee, or foot. There was absolutely no chance he could be hurt. Montero didn't deserve his yellow, and probably got it on reputation (which he has definitely earned).

Very hard to see (real time or on replay) but it looks like Freddy did something to provoke the bump. Impeding Onstad's move to the ball, perhaps? That seems to be what provoked the whole thing, well, that and the fact it was simply Freddy...

I instantly knew they were atrocious. Keep your club/home colors conservative and get wacky with an away shirt every now and then. Reminds me of tons of teams going with lame copper (*cough cough Caps cough cough*), teal or purple colors in the 90s and now they have to change.

Posted by: Kev29 | October 30, 2009 10:07 AM | Report abuse

The Caps weren't the only only ones. The Wizards, Mystics, and Ravens are still wearing their 90's looking uni's. The worst of the bunch has to be the Ravens. Their merchandise has got to be the tackiest in the NFL along with the Titans.

It appeared the refs' collective judgment was that Onstad was baited somehow. Whether they saw or *heard* something prior to the contact, or whether iit's just Montero's rep affecting their judgment, it's hard to tell. In either case, Montero didn't offer much argument.

Overall Salazar was conservative with his cards, even with six (?) given out. A few dangerous/reckless tackles and persistent fouls got off with verbal warnings. Ljungberg hounded him for several minutes during play about a late non-call (Ljungberg was probably right, but still unsporting).

Refereeing was a non-story in a tight physical big game. Kudos to the refs.

Given some of the uniforms MLS (and soccer in general) has foisted on the world, Sounders' unis are fine. DC fans might have a particular aversion to them -- nothing wrong with that either.

Nowhere in the world is that a red. That's argy bargy not violent conduct. Why would you ever send a player off for bumping another with their chest? It's unsportsmanlike, but however hard Fredy forces himself to fall, it would still never warrant a red.

What is it about Freddy that sets keepers off? On replay it looks like Pat was yelling at someone else and walked right into Freddy. Or maybe it was intentional. Freddy has a rep for diving and everyone knows that. You need to look at the very first several seconds of the clip. It looked to me that Freddy backed into the keeper, thus obstructing, and giving Jaqua the shot on goal. Anyway, I thought the call was ok.

Any time I see another failure in soccer story with Fenty's name in the article it makes me want to punch someone's lights out. I hope one day the saying, "Fenty lied and then soccer died" does not come true...

That was an exciting game, and the atmosphere was electric. You know I happen to like Seattle's jersey colors. They're not so bad. It's different and that sea of green was a thing of beauty. That was a heck of a game - a goal would have been nice, but it was a decent MLS match.

Seattle's fans bring it. They bring the energy, they bring the noise they bring the passion. Second to us of course, but man you have got to give them some love for that. 35K+ standing, chnating and singing for the full 90 for a mid week game? Are you kidding me? They made that game a spectacle last night. They did our league proud. Big ups, Seattle. Big ups. Seattle in the final would be a wicked coupe for this league - I am hoping to see that.

Regarding the soccer field piece -- there was a similarly-themed piece that ran in the City Paper in April about the National Park Service's seeming campaign to eliminate soccer-playing. The piece described all the barriers the Service had put up in parks around the city to prevent soccer players from chewing up the grass.

Oh yeah...Freddy Montero. Something about that kid just irks people in tis league, no? It makes you wonder what little things he's doing to get under people's skin so. I'm all for it. I just ask that he quit with the diving - no one likes that and it's not a good reputation to earn in a physical league, where one day, Ugo Ihemelu will catch you and some ref will blow play on. The kid's good and seems to know how to get into defender's heads. He's young and his game will improve. What a catch for the league.

Oh yeah, correct call. Pat should have known better. Red? I think not.

"Thank you Kevin for this D.C. United jersey and congratulations on your terrific season," Fenty said. "It is great to see over 20,000 fans here at RFK supporting D.C. United. It is my hope that your fans will soon be coming to your brand new soccer stadium at Poplar Point in Anacostia. World class fans, and a world class team like D.C. United, deserve a world class stadium. AND I AM GOING TO MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO HELP YOU BUILD THAT STADIUM. Thank you -- congratulations and good luck to the Black-and-Red!"

But Soehn, Kasper, et. al. had to trade him for a mediocre goalie who hung up his cleats for personal reasons.

Good trade there guys......

Posted by: Poopy_McPoop | October 30, 2009 11:50 AM

Hindsight is 20/20. Boswell was not good enough for the club formerly known as DC United. He's still a slow, marginal defender. But in MLS, slow and marginal defenders are the equivalent to Gianluca Zambrotta.

I agree with Kevin Payne. 0-0 ties are a poor advertisement for the league. What a boring match. Too bad neither team played the DC United Swinging Gate™ brand of defense. Then we would have had an exciting season followed by an extended playoff run.

What? That was the playoffs? Nevermind. Maybe Seattle should have hosted the US Open Cup Final, too.

Seattle fans do bring it. I was thinking last night that based on their 1st year's attendance, they seem to have twice the number of hardcore fans as DC United has.

I wonder how much of their and Toronto's success has to do with their having urban stadia (and what this means for DC United, given our failed negotiations with the city).

Sorry to digress, but I've gotta say something about the National Park Service and soccer. This morning, I heard a WAMU commentator criticize Obama for exercising solely with males. I see a connection.

Given our nation's obesity problem, I find it very ironic that a government agency would be trying to place obstacles to adults exercising and that people could find any fault whatsoever with how our president exercises. In the area of exercise, our last two presidents have set a pretty good example!

I was standing right behind the goal when Onstad bumped Montero. He ran him over...Montero was not expecting it and wasn't even looking at Onstad.

Montero may have acted just a little...but people...Montero is really, really small...and Onstad is a big guy...who was pissed...

I looked at the replay 5 times...and have concluded that Onstad thought that Montero intentionally ran into him to prevent him from getting to a cross.

Montero did crash into Onstad...but if you look closely...a Houston defender wraps his arms around Freddy and shoves him into Onstad's path.

Probably a good decision to give Onstad only a yellow...but Montero didn't do crap.

Oh..and the ref was terrible by the way...I have no idea how Houston ended with 11 guys.

They commited 3x the fouls that Seattle did...yet the cards handed out were equal. Not allowing advantage on Jaqua's "goal"? Hurtado two foots a guy..and no call? He missed things all over the field...was really inconsistent on handing out cards..etc.

Having said that...I think the game would have still ended 0-0....but the ref had little control of the game.

twice the number of hardcore fans? does it count if they're just jumping on the bandwagon and will stop coming if the team doesn't do well? Is anyone still wearing shredded jeans, and flannel pajama tops around town these days?

It's easy- keepers don't like Fredy because he scores goals, assists on goals, and makes them look foolish. And he's young (an upstart) on an expansion team (more upstarts) that have made the aging prima donnas of the MLS look bad.

There are players who dive much more Fredy, and no one is ragging on them all the time. What it really amounts to is sour grapes.

It's unacceptably lazy that the women's list on Goal.com is not formatted like men's list? How hard is it to add some flags and list the players' clubs and ages. For all but the Germans, the info is on the WPS site. I complained to the "Contact us" link, but I doubt I'll get a response.

And I had to look up Mana Iwabuchi. She's on Japan's U17 team. POTY candidate? Seriously?

You honestly think that Montero brings out the ire of opposing players and fans because of his race? Really? You don't think it's at all possible that he's disliked because he usually hurts opposing teams and often feigns injury?

Ask DC fans how they feel about Taylor Twellman. He dives, he scores lots of goals against us, and he's largely hated here. He could be of any race, and it wouldn't matter. Inserting race into this is absolutely ridiculous.

mmathai1:

Don't forget, Seattle fans also invented MLS, the idea of supporting a sports team, and the wheel.

captainwierd:

I have to agree with you, to a certain extent.

Seattle is a big deal right now, so naturally they'll garner more attention. Old complaints about diving from the traditional MLS divers like Blanco seem silly; it's like telling someone that the sun will come out tomorrow. Montero, however, is a new diver, and worse yet, he's also banging in goals. Naturally, the complaints about diving in MLS will focus on someone who is both new and successful.

That said, you've really got to be wearing some massive rave green blinders if you think Montero isn't amongst the most likely players to take a dive in MLS. No one ends up on the ground that often playing honestly.

What I'm talking about yanking the chian would be like when I saw this piece and I oringinally thougt about posting the following (sarcastic) comment:

"Coz if Pat Onstad wasn't CANADIAN we wouldn't even be having this discussion on whether or not he deserved any card at all. There would have been no cards given and Goff wouldn't have brought it up. Xenophobia and racism--get it out of the game!"

But then I realized that just like when some of the posters tack on here "Coz Seth Blatter (or anyone else who we happen to be discussing) HATES SOCCER!!!" There is always someone who posts here who maybe doesn't follow the silliness of the blog who wouldn't get the running gag.

Now I feel like I am a day late and a dollar short again--coz ya must have been goofing. I just missed the obvious. Yet again...

There are players who dive much more Fredy, and no one is ragging on them all the time. What it really amounts to is sour grapes.

Posted by: captainwierd
-------------------------------------------
Nope. No sour grapes here. None at all. Of course, it is a lot easier for you to just assume that it is sour grapes.

What is the complaining about the kid diving really amounts to is that Fredy Montero is currently the MLS king of the divers. The kid is shamelesss. Great player. Great diver. When he stops diving, he'll get even more respect. The diving is the only negative crique that comes to mind when I think of Montero. The series of thoughts in my dome goes something like.

"Man, that kid can play! What a dangerous piece to have. Seattle lucked out getting that kid. Playing like that, he won't stay in MLS for too long. We better enjoy his mastery while we can" and quickly moves to "For the love of God, Carlos Freaking Ruiz 2!"

Montero's one of the MLS players I'm happy to pay to see, but let's dispense with the whole "Rudy" thing. Montero was a huge star in Colombia before coming to MLS, and surely has a European and international career ahead of him. Whoever you are, just enjoy this while you still can.

Seahawks changed up their colors years ago, and have had a tiny bit of that color in the scheme since then. Most notably in the hawks eye. I think the shade is slightly different in the Sounders jerseys but it's hard to tell them apart if they're different at all.

Boswell was traded for very much the same reason Soehn put Szetela in teh doghouse: Off-the-field lifestyle issues. Soehn has zero tolerance for those players of this generation who actually have a life off the field and feel to some extent that life is worth enjoying. Having lost confidence in Perkins at the end of 2007, he would off-loaded him as well had Troy not gone to Europe. Needing to replace Troy and hating Boswell's approach to life, it is so ironic that he traded Bobby for a GK who promptly pulled a Dean Moriarty, the strongest act of sport-team independence. This team will be so better off if Soehn and his buttboy protector Kasper are the next ones off-loaded.

It doesn't take rave green blinders to question the rap Montero has been given- it takes having actually watched all 30 Sounders games this year, plus the Open Cup (not just the final). Fredy doesn't dive near what people accuse him of.

Take just last night, and all of the people claiming Fredy flopped. Watch the replay, folks- and take a look also at the earlier shove Onstad gave Montero. It is at 1:35 in the highlights (the incident leading to the cards is at 2:00).

I cannot stand Fredy Montero. Sure he's a good player, but he embellishes everything, he's a dirty player, and he takes cheap shots... He reminds me of a certain #87 (hockey reference for those who don't follow)

twice the number of hardcore fans? does it count if they're just jumping on the bandwagon and will stop coming if the team doesn't do well? Is anyone still wearing shredded jeans, and flannel pajama tops around town these days?

Posted by: DadRyan | October 30, 2009 1:54 PM | Report abuse

We shall see what kind of staying power the Seattle Sounders supporters have.

We have two pretty clear cases of Unsporting Behavior here. A chest bump is one, and falling to the ground like you've been struck in the face when you got bumped is the other. The CR gave Montero a card to say, "Don't lie to me, boy."